Partition size for Time Machine

Just purchased 500 GB Maxtor OneTouch4Plus ex hd and want to set up partition to use TM to backup my 120 GB MacBkPro running Leopard. How big should the partition be for reasonable use?
Thanks for any suggestions!

Hello Pax4us,
3 - 4 times the space that your existing data takes up. Sooooo...
10 Gigs of data on the internal = 40 Gig partition size.
That said, with 500 available - 100 Gig will be OK too.
Regards
Ian

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I used a partitioned HDD for time machine, using a partition already containing other data files. I am now no longer able to view that partition in Finder. Disk Utility shows it in grey and "not mounted". Any suggestions of how to access the files?

I used a partitioned HDD for time machine, using a partition already containing other data files. I am now no longer able to view that partition in Finder. Disk Utility shows it in grey and "not mounted". Any suggestions of how to access the files? Does using time machine mean that that partition is no longer able to be used as it used to be?
HDD is a Toshiba 1TB, partitioned into two 500GB partitions.
OS X version 10.9.2

Yes, sharing a TM disk is a bad idea, and disks are cheap enough so that you don't need to.
Now
Have you tried to repair the disk yet

Ideal Drive size for Time Machine?

Hi:
I've been clearing out some space on 2 Lacie external drives (250 GB each) for Time Machine to use as its destination drive. 2 things are clear.
1. There's not enough space on either of these (even after trashing some stuff)
2. It seems like a wiser course of action to buy a third drive, dedicated to backup purposes. It won't be accessed unless I need to do a restore kind of operation with my MBP, unlike my other external drives which I do access regularly.
Anyway, I was thinking that a 500 GB external drive would be the ideal size to use. Thats pretty big, and the cost is dirt cheap these days. At the moment, I have 124 GB of space remaining on my MBP drive, so that may help determine what size of backup drive I need.
Thanks,
Michael Stryker

I'll give you my real world experiance. I have a MBP with 160GB, with 123GB committed (8GB free) to OS X and the rest to Vista.
I have an external 500GB Maxtor USB 2 drive I use for TimeMachine, Vista and SuperDuper!, partitioned to give 300GB to TimeMachine.
I've used TimeMachine since October 29th, and I have about 23GB of the 300GB free -- so you should be fine with a 500GB drive dedicated to TimeMachine.

Can I partition my external hard drive so that one partition is for Time Machine and the other is to install Windows with Boot Camp?

I have a Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex 1TB USB 3.0 external hard drive that I currently use just for Time Machine backups. Is it possible for me to go into Disk Utility and create a new partition on the drive so that I may install Windows 7 via Boot Camp? Or since I am already using it for Time Machine do I have to keep it only for Time Machine?

You must install Boot Camp in your internal drive because Windows can't be installed in an external disk and Boot Camp can't do that

Partition Scheme for Time Machine

I have an external hard drive that is the same size as the internal hard drive in my mac mini, and I want to use the external drive to backup the mac. Currently, my mac is partitioned to use Boot Camp, and I also wanted to use the external drive to share files between OSX and Windows. When I setup Time Machine, will it backup the Windows partition as well? If so, would it be best to setup the partitions on the external drive the same as the internal drive and use something else to share files between OSX and Windows?
Thanks.

No, Time Machine will only backup your OS X partition. You'd need a different backup solution running under Windows to backup that side.

What size for Time Machine

Hi, I am backing up my iMac to a WD Mybook with 500 Go space.
The iMac hard drive has 235 Go on it right now.
I have been backing up with TM since June and the Mybook is now full.
Is this normal?
I seem to remember before, TM did not take up so much space so quickly.
Thanks.

Russa wrote:
.. you might want to limit the folders that are included in the back-up. For instance, I only back-up my user folders. I do not back-up application or system folders. (I acknowledge TM only does incremental or "what's changed" back-ups.) You can accomplish this by selecting "exclude these files" in the TM setup on our Mac.
That's not a good idea. Excluding system and application folders won't save much space (under about 10 gb), but it will make doing a full restore from your TM backups impossible.
When your internal HD fails (and they all do, sooner or later), you'd have to first install the OS from your Install disc; set-up your users, configuration, network settings, etc.; migrate or restore your data; download and install the "combo" Software Update to bring your OS current; and reinstall any 3rd-party software (possibly having to re-enter license codes); then hope you didn't miss anything. Major hassle for minor space saving.

Re-partition external drive for Time Machine

When I originally connected my external drive to my iMac I partitioned it for Time Machine and a media library for my iTunes. I decided to put iTunes back on the main drive to increase space on the external drive for my Time Machine backups. I have deleted the Media partition but the iDisk Utility will not allow me to increase the size of the Time Machine partition. (There is no "drag" graphic/option). Any help would be appreciated. I do not want to lose the backups I currently have on the external drive.

I've gone thru steps from this link I posted in a different forum.
http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=11538480#11538480

Is it not recommended to use a partitioned external hard drive for time machine?

1. i hv a 1 tb seagate back up plus hard disc ..,,i want to make partitions for using it for time machine, mac, and window repectively . is it not recommended to use a partitioned drive for time machine? some where i have red that time machine wont be able to restore data from external partioned hard drive in case internal hard drive crashes.
2. if i use the seagate back up plus 1tb for mac only and use time machine to take backup (roughly 250 GB) , then the rest space i cant use to transfer movies, pictures from a PC
3. how should i best use the seagate back up plus hard drive (not seagate back up plus for mac) in a way that i use it for back up , and to work with both mac and PC?

I use a partitioned external drive for Time Machine as well as other things.
How you partition it is a function of yoru needs.
Barry

External hard drive partition for Time Machine wont mount

I have an external HD that I've partitioned half for Time Machine, and half for external storage. Today the Time Machine partition wouldn't show up on the desktop. I checked Disk Utility and it recognizes both partitions, but the Time Machine partition is greyed out. When I selected it, in the stat list at the bottom it said "Mount Point: Not Mounted." I then clicked on "Mount" at the top, and after a bit a popup told me it couldn't mount and I should attempt to repar the disk. So I clicked "Repair Disk," and after a while, I finally got the message "Error: Disk Utility can’t repair this disk. Back up as many of your files as possible, reformat the disk, and restore your backed-up files."
Why is only one partition affected? Can I reformat one petition but leave the other untouched? Are there any other options before I do this?
One other item that is probably related: I've been having an issue with a flash drive that seems to constantly unmount itself, giving me "error, disk ejected improperly" messages. Earlier today I believe I had the same thing with my external HD.

Why is only one partition affected?
The drive malfunction that caused the problem only affected that partition.
Can I reformat one petition but leave the other untouched?
Yes.
Are there any other options before I do this?
This is not an option, it's mandatory: start a new backup on another drive. The one you have has lost data once already. If it were mine, it would be in the recycling bin now. You need more than one backup to be safe anyway. Apparently you have no backups at all of the data on the other partition. That means you're going to lose that data, sooner or later.

On a 500G MBP running Lion what's the best size to partition a 2T WD external hard drive to for Time Machine? Thankse

Just picked up a 2T WD external HD for my new MBPro with 500 G drive. Looking to use part of the external drive for Time MAchine. Not sur if I should designate 1T of it or 750G. I'm running Lion. What's the best way to format the external drive. Disk Utility?
Thanks,
Dennis

Ask in Lion: TimeMachine / MacBook Pro even - this is workstation territory
I would not use the same drive for data and for backups.
If I had to, I'd make a partition large enough to boot your Mac from though, whether 50-500GB to clone your system.
You should still be able to use Lion's Recovery boot mode.
I don't think there really is much choice in what to format with, unless you want to spend over $100.

HT201250 Can I partition my external hard drive and use one partion for time machine and the other one for data that i may want to use in different computers?

I have this doubt. I've just bought an external drive, especifically a Seagate GoFlex Desk 3 tb.
I want to know if it is recomendable to make a partion exclusively for time machine and let another one so I can put there music, photos, videos, etc that I should need to use or copy to another computer.
May half and half, 1.5 tb for time machine and 1.5 tb for data.
I have an internal hard drive of 500 GB (499.25 GB) in my macbook pro.
Any recommendation?

As I said, yes. Be sure your Time Machine partition has at least 1 TB for backups.
1. Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder.
2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to two (2). Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.

Can I use an empty (NFTS)partition on my 1tb WD drive for Time Machine

I have a 1TB WD external hard drive formatted NTFS into 6 partitons. Can I use one of the partitions for Time Machine? or will it try to destroy all the partitions I have on the NTFS drive? I have Macbook Pro (early 2011 with OXS 10.7 Lion) and am running Parallels with Windows Vista on the Mac. And I have a Toshiba satellite running Vista. I just want to be able to read and write to my USB drive, from both and transfer files from the windows machine to the Mac and vice versa. Any Suggestions?

TimeMachine backups should be at least 2x the size of the HD. Assuming you hve a 500 GB drive, all of the 1 TB will be needed, not just 1 partition.
Even if you decided to run below specs, you still need a disk with the GUID partition mapping scheme and HFS+ partition for TimeMachine.
I just purchased a new/self-powered LaCie 1 TB fro my 500 GB MBP. "New" being the operative word.
As to reading/writing NTFS ... Mac can read read NTFS but not write it without special software.

I am setting up a time machine backup to a external Hard drive. I want to backup by Mac book Pro running OSX 10.8.5. I would like to Partition the disk and use one partition for Time machine backups and the other for my Lightroom backups. How to do this?

I want to create a two partition disk. One partition for time machine, the other for Lightroom backup. Currently Time Machine is using the entire drive and it is doing the intial encryption and is about 29% complete after two days. I've decided that I want to turn encryption off and partition the disk. So I do I start over?

With the external drive attached, open Finder>Applications>Utilities>Disk Utility. Select the external drive from the list in the left side panel of the DU window. In the main window panel, click Partition in the buttons top center of that panel.
Select the number of partitions you want and adjust their sizes.
For the first partition, click to highlight the partition, then select the format, Mac OS Extended (Journaled) and then the partition table as GUID [both of those are the defaults]. Click Apply and it will ask to confirm and erase and format that partion...oh, give the partition a name, like Backup.
Then repeat those steps for the second partition..and remember to name it...something like Lightroom.
Close Disk Utilitty and you are ready to send TM to the one partition, and do your backup of Lightroom to the second partition.

What size HDD do you need for Time Machine is it the size of iMac HDD?

Ok, looking to buy iMac, to use Time machie do you need the same size HDD that is in your iMac? ie Im looking at getting the 250Gb iMac, so do I need a 250Gb external HDD to use time machine?
I plan to also get a NAS drive so can time machine be used with this or do you need n external HDD attached direct to the iMac all the time to use time machine?
cheers

the loc-man wrote:
so you can pick and choose what backup? eg Music, Pics, Docs, emails etc?
Yes you can choose everything or just parts.
does it compress stuff though to utilize the space better?
No, look here for more detail. http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/timemachine.html
its not like a ghost image?
Not that I know of.
so if the iMac had to be re-installed could you then reconnect the Time machine HDD and restore everything?
You could insert the Leopard disk and instead of doing a new install you could restore directly from the Time Machine Back Up. This depends on if you do a full back up or just parts of your system. Either way it is easy to recover your system using Time Machine.
Also if the external HDD is used for time machine is that all it can be used for? or can you also use it on other computers both Mac and PC?
It is best if you use Time Machine on a partition by itself. Then the other partition can be used for normal stuff.

What size for External HD for Time Machine?

Hello. An Apple Support Tech suggested an external HD, twice the size of the internal for Time Machine backup. I presently have 1TB in the iMac and a 500GB Lacie--a long way from double! Do I need to rush out and get a 2TB one? Hope not due to the $$$!
Comments would be appreciated. Cheers.

A few additional points:
You can use Time Machine to back up more than just your internal drive. If you have a FireWire drive that is also primary storage, you can set Time Machine to back up both the internal drive and external FireWire drive. So be sure to include data on any other drive that you may want to also back up, when determining the required size of the Time Machine drive
You don't need to get a fast FireWire drive for use with Time Machine. A less expensive USB 2.0 drive works just fine. Capacity is more important than speed.
You don't have to use the entire external drive for the Time Machine backup. If you get one that is larger than currently needed, you can partition it and use one partition for Time Machine. You don't even have to partition it. The volume used by Time Machine can also be used to store other data.
You can exclude specific files and folders from being backed up. For example, if you use VMware Fusion or Parallels Desktop, you may want to exclude the virtual hard disk image files used by the virtual machines. Those files are huge and every time you run the virtual machine, those disk image files change, and therefore, Time Machine will save another copy. That will chew through your available Time Machine backup space really fast. Also, you may feel like there is no need to backup files in your Downloads folder (because you can always download those files again), so you can exclude it. So be sure to consider things you don't need to backup, when figuring out how large your Time Machine backup drive should be.

Partition size for Time Machine

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